So many stories...

Hola a todos,

So this is cool, it´s 2010. Kinda crazy huh? For the New Years we weren't allowed to stay out or anything so we entered the pension at 10 and ate some meat and rice that a member who lives upstairs made for us. We talked until 12:05 and noticed that the New Year had passed and went to bed. IT WAS A BLAST!

I've come to realize that there are so many little stories that I haven't been able to tell you all. Like how a Peruvian man in our ward had to make little tunics in the 3rd hour of church so that the people being baptized had something to wear. Or how my COMPANION overflowed the Baptismal font into our Gospel Principle class the day of Juan's baptism. Or about how a bunch of little kids dressed up like fat wise-men were running around the temple grounds during the Christmas programs. Or about how a missionary in our zone unfortunately got sent home a couple weeks ago. There's so much that I wish I could tell you all, but there's just no time to do it. Unfortunately you'll just have to deal with what I feel like writing you.

A few things that have had a great impact on me this week are:

The Stake Mission Leader invited all the missionaries and all their Ward Mission Leaders in our zone to a meeting. All of us missionaries showed up and not a single Mission Leader arrived. We held the meeting and the most memorable part was that he used a clip from the movie 300 to inspire us to work harder. (Had to do with how 300 real soldiers is better then thousands of bakers or blacksmiths).

The Patriarch's wife made us lunch the other day and she made us a drink that you HAVE to try! All you need is Ginger Ale, crushed pineapple, and pineapple sorbet/ice cream. You just make basically a root beer float but with ginger ale and pineapple. It was actually REALLY good.

We taught Mario, Lucy (de England), and family how to make REAL Estados Unidos pancakes and they LOVED them. Pancakes here are basically crepes.

I saw a dead body covered by a tarp right outside of our apartment. A man got hit trying to cross the main road. The police were blocking the street off and measuring everything when we passed by. Also a little boy got hit by a car while we were sharing a lesson, we all went outside to see, after about 5 minutes they decided he was ok, and we went back inside to finish the lesson.

I had a crazy man come right up to my face 2 days ago and scream ¨¡MATA A LOS NORTE AMERICANOS!¨ and also while we were knocking doors I told a man that we were Representatives of Jesus Christ and he yelled ¨¡USTEDES NO SON REPRESENTANTES DE EL!¨ and slammed the gate right in front of my nose.

This week Elder Boyce, trying to be funny, locked the front door after he left the apartment while we were still inside. Little did he know that the keys cannot unlock the door from the inside so Elder Blankenfeld and I were locked in the apartment for 30 minutes. We tried calling neighbors, we called the Elder´s phone, but they left it at a member´s house. Eventually a old man walked by and we threw him the keys and asked if he could open our door. Elder Blankenfeld taught Boyce a lesson that night.

The most memorable thing was that last night we passed by the hermana's house that lives upstairs to visit her, but she and her son weren't there. The 82 year old grandma was though (and let me just tell you, she looks even older then that). We asked her if there was anything we could do for her and she looked right at me and told me that she could use a boyfriend... I told her we couldn't help her with that and we left.

That´s basically my week in a really disorganized email. Thank you so much for the help you are doing back home for our mission here. I love you all so much and hope all is well. Please continue to pray for us so that we can find new people to teach.

Love,

Elder Mooney